Medical View of Spiritualism.
Of all mental ailments, none seem to yield to treatment so reluctantly as spiritualism. I have watched many cases of genuine spiritualism, but do not remember to have seen a chronic case permanently cured. I have seen typical cases pass regularly through their successive stages and terminate in open insanity, and have never been able to mitigate the symptoms nor avert the result. Spiritualism is the most unpromising complaint with which the psychologist is called to meet. No epidemic of modern times can compare with it. It is a delusion which has existed twenty-five years, and attacked in the United States alone nearly three million people. The last census informs us that there are in the Republic twenty-four thousand insane, setting aside idiots; and it is believed that out of this number seven thousand five hundred cases may be traced directly to spiritualism. The delusion does not appear to be decreasing, though fortunately its victims are now almost altogether from the vulgar and illiterate classes, and scientific men do not seem to be liable to the contagion. It numbers among its victims a few men and women of talent and genius, but they were attacked years ago; and we venture to say that had they remained free from the disorder up to the present day, they would not now be very susceptible to its influence. The fact is, spiritualism has lost its hold on the higher classes, and is spreading with fearful rapidity among the rude and illiterate. Whole communities are given over to its influence. Its believers have their organizations, places of worship, mediums, books, papers, and asylums; they are as sincere, earnest, and fearless, as were the Flagellants, Lycanthropes, and Crusaders of the Middle Ages; but alas! they are even more deranged.—N. Y. Medical Review.